RALLY ISLAS CANARIAS UPDATES

ERC Junior U27 ace Ingram overcomes drama to lead

05/05/2017 21:30

Chris Ingram’s bid for a second consecutive FIA ERC Junior Under 27 Championship win was hanging in the balance for around 20 minutes after his Opel ADAM R2 refused to start heading to the regroup in San Mateo on Rally Islas Canarias earlier today.Ingram, who suggested the problem had been caused by an overheating issue, was 10 seconds inside the time limit when he eventually arrived. However, there were no such problems on the stages for the Briton, whose tally of three wins puts him in front by 23.3s. Jari Huttunen is next up in a second factory ADAM.Aleks Zawada ran as high as second in class only to stop on the day’s penultimate stage, leaving Karel Kupec to complete the overnight podium. Kupec scored his first ERC Junior Under 27 stage best on SS5 and is 15.9s in front of fellow Czech Filip Mareš with Canary Islander Marcos González fifth and Tamara Molinaro sixth.Despite her impressive pace, the Italian has been unable to match Emma Falcón in the battle for ERC Ladies’ Trophy honours. Buǧra Banaz is seventh with Dominik Brož reporting set-up issues in eighth. Catie Munnings completes the runners in ninth, while Sébastien Bedoret was fifth in class when he crashed his Peugeot on SS4. Roberto Blach and Timo van der Marel are third and fourth in ERC3, albeit not eligible for ERC Junior points like Falcón.

Pre Rally

Ingram excited ahead of ERC Rally Islas Canarias

27/04/2017 10:00

Chris Ingram can’t wait for next week’s Rally Islas Canarias – even though the FIA European Rally Championship counter will be all-new to him.The Briton leads the ERC Junior Under 27 standings following his dramatic final-stage victory on the Azores Airlines Rallye earlier this month and faces the prospect of defending his title advantage on an event he has no prior experience of.“I am very excited for the new challenge in the Canaries as I don’t know the rally,” said the Opel Rallye Junior Team ace. “I learned a lot from a test we recently had in Germany, and grippy Tarmac is my most favourite surface anyway. I predict the ADAM R2 will be very strong as always so it will be down to us to take home a good result. Elliott [Edmondson] and I are confident after our victory on the first round at the Azores but are working harder than ever to make sure we can keep up the momentum. We are expecting another flat-out battle for victory with our team-mates and ERC rivals on this new event.”Rally Islas Canarias is based in Las Palmas on Gran Canaria from 4-6 May. Ingram faces opposition from 10 ERC Junior U27 rivals in his quest of the 100,000 euros career progression fund.